Ask Toxic Draw

[Renfry]

Renfry shifted a bit as she stood there. Her concerns about everything had subsided as her mind slipped back into the arcane. Everything he said captivated her mind and she was already churning through how to make it happen.

I can do it, she said, though the rituals involved were taxing. She held out her hand to Emryc.

I need your lightsaber, she said. It took her several minutes to carve all the various runes for both of the rituals involved in the process.

She handed his saber back to him and motioned for him to lie on the ground in the center of all the runes.

This is a dangerous ritual, she said. She didn't want to tell him that, but for all his faults, he had always been honest with her. And painful.

I'll be here, she said quietly. She doubted he wanted her words of consolation, but there they were nonetheless.

She waited until he indicated he was ready and began.

Energui, coe, a nen. Ichors a mair nin nall- she said, touching her hand to his forehead. It wasn't actually her own power, but the darkness of Korriban that she poured into his mind, burning through his mind and memories until it could scorch her out. The presence had not been there as long as it had with Ender, so the side effects were less risky. Even so, he would be able to feel a pounding, burning pain within his mind.

It continued until it had driven the presence from his mind. Her other hand came down onto the runes, tearing a rip in the Veil that the spirits began to rush across. And through it all, the holocron of Darth Kravos smiled.

The room was filled with a stifling darkness, and for the first time they would be able to sense that Kravos had returned to his holocron with a deeper power.

 

[Emryc Thorne]

It was pain unlike anything he had ever known. He had prepared for it as much as he could, and it still wasn’t enough. He didn’t even realize that he had been yelling at the top of his lungs in an anguished wail. His head threw back and his eyes glowed yellow before switching to pure white as the Force charged through him. The Jedi spirit clashed against the toxins that began to pump through him.

He wanted it to stop, he wanted the agony to end. He writhed and squirmed, dropping to the ground and furiously digging his fingernails in. He couldn’t stand it, rolling to the side and clawing and clutching desperately at everything around him. If Renfry didn’t distance herself, he would claw away at her.

Searing hot knives cut away at his mind, shredding through his thoughts. He had built up the fortress that was his mind and the walls were getting bombarded. The defenses he set up were fighting the onslaught which only made it more painful. He fired his arrows, he slashed with his blades, but the charging forces broke through his ranks. His towers collapsed, his walls had been breached. He was assaulted by millennia of corrupted spirits flooding his mind.

Emryc couldn’t stand the feel of anything around him, anything touching his skin. His hands clutched and pulled away at his clothing, everything feeling as if he were on fire. He was burning and had been set ablaze, pain shooting through every inch of his being. He wanted it to end, he wanted to take a dagger and pierce it into his heart to give himself sweet mercy.

Several of his nails peeled off as he clawed away at the ground, his mind completely breached and overrun. He was torn apart, half in the physical realm and half in the plane of the Force.

 

[Renfry]

Renfry couldn't back away and it didn't take long for blood to begin running down the arm that was touching his forehead and she struggled to keep it in place as he tore and thrashed while also keeping him away form the rest of her body.

She focused on his mind, feeling it crack under the pressure and strain of the darkness he was contesting with. She continued to allow the power of the world to flow through her, but her own strength went into steeling his mind, helping it flex rather than shatter under the strain.

After a moment, a dark being appeared in Emryc's mind. The pain stopped, but now he would face down a Sith Lord of old. It did not offer its name, but it sought to control him.

And then Kravos voice rang out in both their minds. It was not from the holocron but from his spirit, torn back into this world.

It is your mind. Trap it. Create a barrier that it cannot escape, he said to Emryc. You have created walls to keep things out, but to be truly above attack, you must destroy the invader.

And you must strengthen those walls, he told her. The maze of the mind was intended to be created through meditation long before the attack, but with the power of both of them, the walls of the mind could be created and solidified even now.

 

[Emryc Thorne]

Emryc could hear the voice inside his mind, and he knew a part of Kravos was alive inside him. He heard the voice as if the man were sitting next to him, as if he could feel his presence mere inches away. His skin was bare and he could feel the brush of spirits near him. The agony began to settle and he gazed into the realm of the Force. He could see a figure before him, a Sith Lord of the past.

The figure slowly turned to look at him, the eternal mask upon its face. It didn’t matter who wore it, and it didn’t matter if it was the first Eternal or one of many that followed. Emryc felt the sheer power that pulsed from the being. He felt Kravos next to him, and he looked upon the shattered debris of his walls. The Sith Lord began to step towards him, calculated and purposeful steps that drove it deeper into Emryc’s mind.

“It’s my mind…” He whispered, unable to hear his own words. He didn’t know if he spoke them aloud or simply thought them. He chanted the words repeatedly as the debris began to move and the walls began to reform. Brick by brick they formed around the Sith Lord. The Sith Lord began to pace quicker, coming directly towards Emryc. His mental fortitude began to rebuild just as fast, feeling strength within him he hadn’t had before.

The Jedi screamed in his thoughts, overwhelmed and fighting as it was being trapped as well. It begged and pleaded with Emryc to turn from this path. She knew where he was going. She knew where it led. She had seen it before and would see it many times over. Emryc closed himself off to it, focusing on containing the Sith Lord and the parts that he sought to eradicate.

He began the destruction within the borders of the walls, but he needed Renfry to do the final push.

 

[Renfry]

Renfry could sense what was going on inside his mind and let herself travel there. It was the first time she'd truly crossed the threshold, seeing the turmoil. Somehow she could still sense that it was normally so orderly and calculated, but now the walls were battered down, in need of reformation, and she could see the invader. The foreign presence that needed isolation or elimination.

She could see him building the walls, rapidly recreating his mind with a speed that might have been impressive if she had time to notice it. But she had a role here. She put her hand out to the newly forming walls, placing it against the proverbial stone and pouring her power into it. She could feel the entity beating against the walls, trying to tear through, trying to consume him, but he held strong and she supported him.

She watched as the whole place formed around them, half expecting that she, herself, would be consumed inside here. But she also took note. She watched what Kravos taught so that she might learn it for herself one day... it was incredible. But that was not for now.

She let herself fade from his mind, watching as the final walls went into place and snapping back to her own body. She stumbled back, feeling the fatigue her own body had suffered and saying nothing as she wrapped up her arm that was now covered in blood.

 

[Darth Kravos]

Kravos had returned. Not just an imprint of his mind, but a portion of his spirit that he had bound to his holocron all those years ago. Despite still appearing as a projection from the holocron, his presence now felt far more fleshed out and almost real compared to what it had felt like before.

You've taken your first steps to turn your mind into an impenetrable maze. In time, it will not only be impervious to attack, but such assaults will be lethal to those who assault you, he said. While such an extreme application had only manifested for him once he became the Dark Lord, the skills would build upon themselves with time. Each meditation would strengthen the integrity of the fortress-maze.

You may yet achieve your ends. Or you may both die trying, he said. Such was the way of the Sith.

 

[Emryc Thorne]

The words resonated within Emryc’s mind for a long time. There was nothing but silence after the mental assault. He slowly came back to the present, exhaling as reality shaped around him once more. Trembling fingers rose up as he inspected the blood and the exposed nailbeds. He was entirely nude, sweat lining his body. He rose to one knee, gazing at the holocron for a long moment.

Emryc didn’t look at Renfry, silver eyes staring into the engravings and his thoughts still carrying Kravos with them. He slowly rose to stand, his back not sporting any recent scars. He slowly walked past Renfry and deeper into the chambers, stepping with purpose. He descended down a set of stairs, circling down to a hall below. This place was only accessible with knowledge from Kravos himself.

Emryc kept walking until he saw a chest before him. There was a rune above it and he placed a palm on it. A moment later, there was a distinct click and the chest unlocked for him. He reached over to open it, gazing within.

A few moments later, Renfry would hear footsteps echoing once more. She would see a cloak, a mask and armor that she had only seen in the projection. It was ancient, it was powerful, and it carried with it the weight of the galaxy and what it took to seek it. Emryc said nothing as he used the Force to call the holocron to his palm.

His demeanor was impossible to decipher, and his mind was entirely blank. There was no anger, no rage, nothing. He walked forward and towards the exit, eyes trained ahead as a chill followed behind him and his every step.

/End Thread